AUSTIN, Texas — A new survey of Hispanic political and religious values finds they’re overwhelmingly Democrats who hold a largely negative view of the Republican Party.

But a Public Religion Research Institute survey released Friday (Sept. 27) at the Religion Newswriters Association conference finds that their religious profile is shifting:

* Today, 53 percent identify as Catholic, but 69 percent said they had a Catholic upbringing.

* The biggest area of growth is evangelical Protestantism. Thirteen percent told pollsters they are evangelical today, compared with 7 percent who said they had an evangelical upbringing.

* The second significant jump is out of religious identification altogether. While only 5 percent said they grew up with no religion, the share of Hispanics who check “none” for their current religious identification stands at 12 percent.

* Twelve percent identify now as mainline Protestant, and 6 percent identify with a non-Christian religion.

The 2013 Hispanic Values Survey of 1,563 Hispanic adults was conducted online in both English and Spanish between Aug. 23 and Sept. 3. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

The survey found that most Hispanics are delighted with Argentine-born Pope Francis, but they hold slightly less favorable views of the Catholic Church. While nearly 69 percent look favorably on the pope, only 54 percent see the institution in a favorable light.

Hot buttons issues with conservative Christians — abortion and same-sex marriage — are not as critical to Hispanics. Topping their list of critical issues are jobs and unemployment (72 percent), followed by health care costs (65 percent) and the quality of public schools (55 percent).

While a majority (52 percent) of Hispanics say “abortion should be illegal in all or most cases,” it is cited as a critical concern by only 32 percent.

Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers.

To pause and restart automatic updates, click "Live" or "Paused". If paused, you'll be notified of the number of additional comments that have come in.

Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers.

Spam

Offensive

Disagree

Off-Topic

Among the criteria for featured comments: likes by users, replies by users, previous history of valuable commenting, and selection by moderators.

Content from Allstate This content is paid for by an advertiser and published by WP BrandStudio. The Washington Post newsroom was not involved in the creation of this content. Learn more about WP BrandStudio.